


The Importance of a Gentleman's Hat

by birdybirdnerd



Category: Villainous (Cartoon)
Genre: Eldritch Abomination, Eldritch Abomination Black Hat, Gen, Gore, Original Character(s), Psychological Horror, will probably have romance in later chapters depending on how i decide to take this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 05:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11006829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/birdybirdnerd/pseuds/birdybirdnerd
Summary: One dark night, someone (or something) decides to steal something very important from Black Hat Manor.





	The Importance of a Gentleman's Hat

**Author's Note:**

> i am villainous trash someone help me. i was talking with a friend in the discord about black hats origins and what exactly his hat is to him and it spawned this. still ironing out the plot details, but tell me what you think!
> 
> edit: i took some feedback into consideration and edited the chapter up a bit. nothing major, just a few minor mistakes. next chapter to be up soonish!

It was a dark, cold night at Black Hat Manor.

A crash sounded from somewhere deep in the bowels of the manor, startling a flock of roosting birds into flight, but not doing much else. It echoed for a bit, and was soon swallowed again into the silence of the night. The birds circled, curious, before landing back where they’d been, ruffling their feathers and tucking their heads under their wings once more.

A dark, oily presence slicked its way down a nearby alley, vision firmly set on its destination. It darted from shadow to shadow, avoiding the few night-crawlers that were out and about. It passed under a streetlamp, which proceeded to buzz and pop, letting loose a shower of sparks that rained down on its pitch body. It hissed, sliding up against the wall and spreading its inky tendrils to encapsulate the rest of the street. Other streetlamps popped and fizzed, throwing the avenue into a darkness so complete, the presence finally felt free enough to stretch.

And stretch it did. It was close enough now to reach the outer wall of the gate surrounding the property in its sights. Looping slender black fingers around the iron-wrought bars of the gate, it peered in, curious, but cautious. Cameras turned, focusing on the movement, but not catching anything. There was the feeling of eyes narrowing. Reality seemed to warp for a moment, and the creature slithered in, the cameras dead.

It danced across the lawn, disabling traps and tripwires, sensors fizzing and popping before falling silent. The darkness spread across the ground, seeping into the earth and establishing itself, before approaching the door. After the final trap was removed, it slid seamlessly through the crack at the base.

Falling through the floor, it sailed down into the basement, where the noise from earlier had come. Humming an unearthly tune, it followed slight sounds of movement and working until it came upon a lab of some sort. All lights were out, excepting a small desk lamp above the project currently being worked on, throwing deep shadows across the sterile lab.

The shadow giggled.

* * *

Dr. Flug’s head shot up at a sound behind him. He spun around, expecting his boss to have appeared, ready to be berated for making so much noise so late at night. He’d been trying to keep quiet, he really had, but it was kinda hard when he needed to move heavy parts around to finish!

There was no one and nothing behind him, so he shrugged and turned back to his work. _Must’ve been my imagination_ , he thought, reaching under his paper bag with a gloved hand to rub under his eye. It was getting late, and he really needed to sleep, but he was so close to finishing. Only a few more minutes…

The sound of scratching from behind him startled him again and he turned around, only to once again find nothing. The sound continued, above him, and he started shaking. Tilting his head upward slowly, he squinted, as if it would make whatever horror he saw less scary.

He needn’t have worried, for as soon as he looked up, the world twisted around him, and his eyes rolled back up into his head.

* * *

The shadow darted down, catching the scientist before he could bang his head on the table. It lowered him gently to the floor, where he curled up and began sucking his gloved thumb. It giggled again, a tittery, otherworldly sound that echoed on multiple planes of existence. Flashing an incorporeal hand out, the lights dimmed and died, and the dark figure darted back up towards the upper floors.

It explored the strange manor, searching for its final destination but unable to find it. It darted through kitchens and sitting rooms, vault after vault of deadly looking equipment, and past a bedroom where a strange lizard-human hybrid slumbered. It didn’t mess with her, as she was already out, but it placed an invisible ward over her in case she awoke.

Finally, frustrated, it stopped in the rough center of the building and hummed. A long, low note rattled the windowpanes, shaking the very foundation of reality. Something felt off, a few hallways down, and the presence followed the trail of wrongness to a blank wall in a shoddily-decorated hallway it had passed through several times already. Trailing an inky hand along the wall, it pushed with something other than force, and the wall shimmered. Darting through, it giggled again as it was sucked into a pocket dimension.

The pull of the void released it, depositing the creature in a lavishly decorated bedroom. A large, black, four-poster bed dominated one side of the room, a large vanity seated across from it. A window covered most of the wall opposite the door, opening out into the great, dark void. Stars shimmered by, swirling in the bright black light, entrancing. The creature harrumphed, having seen it all before.

It drifted over to the bed, where the occupant was snoring softly. He looked peaceful, his usually-hateful visage soothed by sleep, his ever-present sneer replaced with a small smile. A nightcap rested on his head, the same dark grey of the pajamas he wore. The presence traced Black Hat’s face with a single tendril of darkness, grinning maliciously. Then it turned its attention to the prize, sitting daintily on the nightstand nearby.

His hat. His prized, beautiful, wonderful hat. The source of his power, the source of his _being_ , just sitting there on the nightstand as if it were some plain, ordinary tophat. The darkness snickered, reaching for it.

It expected resistance, and resistance it got. It lifted the item carefully, ignoring the flashes of visions of horror and terror the thing tried fruitlessly to insert into its mind. The presence was ancient, and such tricks barely touched its consciousness. It brushed them away effortlessly.

The second level of protection activated as the creature raised the hat higher, away from its owner. It shook, not physically, but on a level of reality only touched by creatures such as itself. It released a shuddering howl, heard only to the figure, piercing its very consciousness with the level of agony it was trying to inflict.

Key word: trying. The presence laughed gaily, the sound like a fly buzzing in its ear. It shook the hat, physically this time, and it shut up. The spirit of the item growled, angry at the lack of response it was getting. It tried once more, a different tactic, one aimed to shred the will of anything it came in contact with.

The presence simply smiled, lifting the hat and placing it on its equivalent of a head, going to the vanity mirror and admiring the black silk.

The hat, fully exhausted of from its fruitless efforts, slipped back into slumber. The figure crooned triumphantly, snatching the item from its head and holding it aloft. It shivered in its sleep, fearful. Sharp, black teeth bared in a terrifying grin.

It looked deeply at the hat, separating the different layers of reality surrounding it, and picked through them until it found the one it was looking for. Curling a sharpened claw around what it found, it quickly and effortlessly severed the thread connecting the hat to its owner. Physically, at least.

Black Hat, who had been shifting and groaning as his hat was taken further away from him, stilled, falling back into the deep sleep he had previously occupied. He curled into the black covers, burrowing his face into the pillow. A look of displeasure colored his dark face, but he stayed sleeping.

The presence admired the remaining threads that connected Black Hat and his namesake. There were several, on differing layers of existence, with many different meanings and uses. It sliced through a few more, but left the rest intact. It had plans involving those threads, and if it cut them all, it would have consequences far greater than it wanted. _Not just yet_ , it thought, then tucked the hat under its arm.

Slithering back to his side, the presence leaned over Black Hat. Plucking a single memory from his mind, it fashioned it into a warning, something new, and a message that he would only find when the presence deemed it time.

Floating to the window, the darkness slid under the sill, folding the hat into a dimension only it had access to. It slid away under cover of night, its plans set.

Now it only had to wait.


End file.
